1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to bags for carrying golf clubs and more particularly to an improved throat structure for facilitating placement and removal of the golf clubs in the bag and providing improved golf club group segregation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Golf clubs have been stored, carried, and otherwise transported in especially designed golf bags for many years. Most golf bags are in the form of a tubular fabric container generally of cylindrical configuration having a closed bottom and an open top, or throat, through which the golf clubs are inserted into and removed from the bag. When golf clubs are in such bags, the grips of the clubs are in resting engagement with the closed bottom of the bag, and the heads of the clubs extend more or less axially from the open throat of the bag. By positioning the golf clubs in the bag in this manner, the clubs can be identified for club selection purposes by a golfer in that the configurations of the heads vary in accordance with the intended usage and are for the most part generally provided with suitable identifying indicia.
Although the number of golf clubs carried in golf bags will vary, the rules of golf dictate that the maximum number of clubs carried while playing will be fourteen. From this, it will be appreciated that even though the clubs vary in configuration and are provided with identifying indicia, selecting a desired club from the relatively large number of clubs can be distracting and sometimes frustrating. And, after the desired club has been identified, removal of the club is not always easy in that the clubs can, and often do, become entangled in the bag.
For the above reasons, most golf bags are provided with throat structures which separate the clubs into segregated groupings which are, of course, determined by individual preference. For example, the woods are usually segregated by the throat structure of the golf bag into one group, the low number, or long and middle distance irons into another group, and the higher number, or shorter distance irons, and the putter into a third group.
The open top, or throat structure of most prior art golf bags are usually in the form of a substantially circular ring-shaped body having a spaced pair of linear dividers placed therein so that the dividers form equal chords within the circular ring-shaped body. The dividers are usually tubular structures formed by folding a relatively heavy gage, usually synthetic, leather-like material, and stitching the aligned longitudinal edges together. Such dividers are normally mounted in the ring-shaped body by an elongated strap which is threadingly passed through the tubular dividers and through suitable openings in the body with a buckle being used to secure the strap, and thus the dividers in place.
Throat structures which are divided as described above are commonly used in the variously sized golf bags from the relatively small diameter light weight golf bags to the relatively large diameter heavy golf bags. In any event, this divider configuration provides three approximately equally sized open areas and most golfers place their woods, usually three or four, in one area, their putter and three or so short distance irons in another area, with the central area being used for containment of the middle and long distance irons. While these three open areas are a considerable improvement over a non-divided throat structure with regard to segregation and ease of club removal, the club entanglement problem is still quite bad particularly with regard to the central opening which can contain as many as seven or eight clubs if the golfer divides the clubs in the usual manner as described above.
In some golf bags, a third divider is sometimes employed to further provide the throat structure with an additional number of club separating open areas. The third divider is formed in the same manner as described above and is mounted below the other two dividers and lies on a diameter of the ring-shaped body and is transverse with respect to the other two dividers. Therefore, the third divider will provide six separate openings through the ring-shaped body. In yet another prior art golf bag, the throat structure is divided into four open golf club segregation areas which are formed by providing the two linear dividers in the ring-shaped body, in the same manner as the first hereinbefore described throat structure, and interconnecting them with a cross rib at the centers thereof. This divides the central opening into two equal halves. These two prior art golf bag throat structures, i.e., those having six open club segregation areas and those with four, are limited for use in the relatively larger diameter golf bags in that if used in the relatively smaller golf bags, the size of the open areas are too small and this hampers facile insertion and removal of the golf clubs. Therefore, the first hereinbefore described three-open area golf bag throat structure is by far the most practical prior art configuration for use in the relatively small diameter light weight golf bags.
In all of the prior art golf bag structures known to me, a particular problem, or shortcoming exists, and the first previously discussed three-open area prior art golf bag structure will be employed in describing this problem.
As is well known, when a golf bag is carried it will normally be disposed at an angle relative to the ground with the throat structure of the bag lying in a more or less upwardly facing angular attitude. Therefore, the open golf club group segregation areas provided in the golf bag throat structure may be defined as including an upper opening, an intermediate opening, and a lower opening. The lower portions of the upper and intermediate openings are defined by linear dividers and when a golf bag is being carried those linear dividers lie in a substantially horizontal attitude, with the shafts of the clubs resting thereon.
However, in actuality, the dividers will slope at a relatively small acute angle with the horizontal due to the golf bag being in bearing engagement with the carrier's body and being suspended by the shoulder strap. This results in the golf clubs tending to collect in one corner or the other of their respective segregated openings. This will not happen in the lower compartment in that the bottom portion thereof is defined by an arcuate part of the ring-shaped body. When the golf clubs gather in the corners as described above, the golf clubs in the upper and intermediate openings will gather in adjacent corners of their respective openings, and this causes shifting and uneven weight distribution in the golf bag. However, a more troublesome problem results from the heads of the golf clubs becoming entangled, making individual club identification and extraction more difficult.
Another problem with all of the above described prior art golf bag throat structures is that of the golf clubs hanging-up, or catching in the throat structures as the clubs are being extracted from the golf bag. The grips provided on the golf clubs are, by necessity, of larger diameters than the shafts of the clubs. Therefore, the grips present an annular lip which faces upwardly toward the throat structure when the golf clubs are in the golf bag, and, the golf club grips are tapered so that they gradually increase in diameter from the annular lips to the terminal ends thereof. A large part of the catching problem occurs when the annular lip of the golf club grips catches on the downwardly facing edges of the dividers of the throat structures, and further catching occurs at the corners of the open club segregation areas where the dividers intersect with the ring-shaped body. When two or more golf clubs are simultaneously extracted, the aligned grip can become wedged between the parallel divider bars.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved golf bag throat structure which is ideally suited for use in relatively small diameter golf club carrying bags which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.